The Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs have produced a mixed bag over the past couple of seasons, both in the results and in how each team won.

In their matchup in Athens, Alabama was highly efficient on third down and lived in the intermediate parts of the field. Then came the SEC Championship. Ty Simpson was injured, the Crimson Tide had no semblance of a rushing attack, and the offense became completely one-dimensional. We all saw how that ended.

Now we get this 2026 Alabama team, and there is a lot to work with to find a winning path against a very good Georgia team. If Alabama wants to beat Georgia on Saturday, the team has to accomplish three things. And none of them come down to hoping the quarterback plays out of his mind.

Keelon Russell can’t carry this offense alone

The first key is taking pressure off quarterback Keelon Russell. Now, I’ll admit he is the best player on the offensive side of the ball for Alabama. That’s not up for debate.

But you have to be multi-dimensional. Daniel Hill and Ezavier Crowell have to be involved in this offense. And even if the rushing attack isn’t the most effective version of itself on Saturday, it still has to be a threat the defense must account for.

If Alabama lets Georgia coach Kirby Smart and his defense pin their ears back and tee off on Russell, that is a very bad spot to be in. We’ve already watched the one-dimensional version of this matchup. It wasn’t pretty.

Third-and-long is a formula Alabama can’t trust

That leads to the second key, which is avoiding third-and-long. Third-and-short is completely fine. Anything under four yards, I’ll live with.

To be fair, the Crimson Tide have done a better job of staying out of third down altogether, mainly because the rushing attack has improved. But when they have landed on third down, it has been third-and-10 or third-and-13. And sure, Russell has delivered some incredible moments in those spots. That’s not a formula I want to rely on against this defense.

Georgia’s disguised coverages and blitzes are built to make a quarterback hesitate for an extra second, and an extra second on third-and-13 is how drives die. If I’m running the Alabama offense, that is not something I want to be dealing with. Stay ahead of the chains, and the whole playbook stays open.

Call Georgia’s bluff on defense

Flipping to the defensive side of the ball, the question I keep coming back to is simple. Can Alabama force Georgia to push the ball vertically?

The Bulldogs run a ton of zone, and a lot of what they do works at the line of scrimmage. If you listen to Georgia fans talk about it online, their offensive coordinator likes to operate through screens and short passes. So take that away and make Georgia prove it can beat you deep.

And you may say, Tegan, we don’t want them creating explosives. We want them playing at the line of scrimmage where we can rally and tackle. I understand that, and on paper it sounds scary. But we haven’t seen a team really try to take the short game away from Georgia and see how else they can beat you. Call the bluff and make the Bulldogs try to create explosives on the road, in a hostile environment.

Alabama has the athletes on defense to create turnovers. If Georgia makes one or two mistakes pressing for big plays, that can be the difference between winning and losing this ball game. That’s a trade I’d take every time.

Where I land on how this game turns out

Balance the offense so Russell isn’t a one-man show, stay out of third-and-long, and dare Georgia to beat you over the top.

If Alabama accomplishes those three things, I think the Crimson Tide have a very good chance to win this game. Miss on even one of them, and we’re probably looking at a rerun of what happened in last year’s SEC Championship.